Cooktop appliances typically can include a variety of configurations. As an example, cooktop appliances may use a glass and/or ceramic-glass cooking panel for supporting cooking utensils. For such cooktop appliances, the heating sources can include, e.g., radiant, induction, and gas on glass. A variety of controls can be provided for the heating sources such as, e.g., traditional rotatable knobs and/or electronic types that rely on sensitivity to a user's touch. These controls may be provided as part of a user interface assembly for controlling various operations of the cooktop appliance. Similarly, other appliances, such as, e.g., washing machine appliances, refrigerator appliances, and the like, may use user interface assemblies for controlling various operations of the appliance.
Such user interface assemblies may use a variety of lighted text, digits, and/or symbols to display information to a user of the appliance on the surface of the appliance. For example, the upper surface of the cooking panel may include a user interface area where the controls are located, as well as where information such as, e.g., whether a heating element is activated or at what heat level a heating element is set, may be displayed to the user using lighted text, digits, and/or symbols. Typically, the sources of light for the lighted features of the user interface are essentially point-sources, such as, e.g., light emitting diodes or LEDs, such that the features may not be evenly or uniformly lit. For example, the region of the illuminated feature that is closest to the light source illuminating the feature is brighter than the regions that are further from the light source, particularly for relatively large graphical or textual features. However, uniform and/or even lighting of, e.g., text labels, is desirable for the overall appearance of the user interface, as well as the readability of the graphics, text, and the like by the user. Although adding light sources around the perimeter of the features could more evenly illuminate the features, additional light sources would increase the cost of the appliance as well as reduce the reliability of the appliance.
Accordingly, an appliance configured to uniformly illuminate features of a user interface of the appliance would be beneficial. A user interface assembly configured to uniformly illuminate features of a user interface that also minimizes the number and/or size of light sources required to uniformly illuminate the user interface features would be especially useful.